Photographer Howard Schatz had an idea: place actors in a series of roles and dramatic situations to reveal the essence of their characters. Such was the premise behind his book, In Character: Actors Acting, which captures some of Hollywood’s most emotive stars in the act of, well, making faces. Luckily for us, he continued the tradition for Vanity Fair. Here are some of the best.

A woman wearing a face mask has her hair curled by a special equipment at a beauty salon in Bangkok on July 12, 2020. (Photo by Mladen Antonov/AFP Photo)

A girl smiles as her hair is blown by a strong wind in the Chinatown area in Yokohama, near Tokyo, Friday, January 27, 2017. (Photo by Koji Sasahara/AP Photo)

American actress Bella Thorne in the last decade of January 2025 reminisces over her long hair from last year at Comic-con. (Photo by bellathorne/Instagram)

Khloe Kardashian and Kris Jenner exit a studio in LA with Lisa Rinna, Kyle Richards, and a film crew. (Photo by Backgrid USA)

A tourist takes photos in an open-air studio with a view of the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (Photo by Emrah Gurel/AP Photo)

Teenage girls are all steamed up these days about straight hair. The steam iron is replacing the huge rollers on which countless teens slept every night to achieve the height and curls fashionable until. The same girls endure having their hair stretched to absolute straightness on the ironing board, and then ironed to keep it that way. Unlike the roller setting, this takes teamwork. Gay Stilley, 14, goes through an ironing session with a couple of her friends at the Stilley Home in Glen Oaks, Queens, New York City on December 23, 1964. With a wary eye, Gay tries to watch the straightening process as one friend stretches her hair with a comb and another does the ironing, in the Stilley kitchen. (Photo by Marty Zimmerman/AP Photo)

British singer Rita Ora ready to record in the studio in North West London, United Kingdom on October 13, 2020. (Photo by Click News and Media)